The cozy mystery makes for perfect escapism.
Sometimes we want to set aside stories of grisly violence, gritty reality and dysfunctional cops to reach for soft-boiled, soft-focused tales of crime and detection comprising quaint villages, quirky characters and ample wit, charm and twists.
Kristen Perrin, originally from Seattle and now based in the U.K., has turned her hand to cozy crime for her adult debut. The enticingly titled "How to Solve Your Own Murder" incorporates key components of the genre. Its plot pivots on a decades-old prediction. In 1965, 17-year-old Frances visited a fair and learned from a fortune-teller that she would be murdered. Instead of dismissing the prophecy, Frances believed it and spends her life trying to prevent her early demise by gathering information on everyone she knows —ruffling many feathers in the process.
In the present day, Annie, an aspiring crime writer living in London, receives a letter out of the blue from Frances' solicitor. Frances has named her great-niece sole benefactor of her estate and would like her to attend a meeting. Annie is baffled; she has never met her relative. Her confusion turns into shock when she arrives at Gravesdown Hall in the village of Castle Knoll and finds Frances dead.
Foul play is suspected, and at the reading of the will Frances issues a challenge from beyond the grave: In order to claim her inheritance, Annie must solve her great-aunt's murder in one week.
"Frances may be nutty, but she's very calculating. And she likes to play games," explains Annie's mother. This game involves Annie assuming the role of amateur sleuth and working against the clock to unmask a killer.
She trawls through the photos, notes and reports that Frances has amassed over the years in her "murder room," and delves into the past by way of Frances' journal. She compiles a growing list of suspects that includes a shifty property developer, a gardener with a "side business," Frances' friends and family — even a vicar and a detective. Annie also tries to decode the fortune-teller's cryptic prediction, a riddle about a queen, a bird and dry bones.
As Annie investigates, we join her in weighing the significance of seemingly innocuous details (Frances' messy bouquet of flowers, her recent car trouble) and answering nagging questions. Is Frances' death connected to the decades-old disappearance of her friend Emily? And why, after 60 years, did Frances' killer strike now?
Perrin's update on the classic murder mystery is impaired by its far-fetched premise and a plot that becomes convoluted rather than intricate. In addition, not all her characters' voices ring true. On the plus side, the pace never lets up and tension mounts when anonymous threats and a body in a trunk make Annie realize that her life might be in danger. The result is a fun yet flawed whodunit.
Malcolm Forbes, who has written for the Times Literary Supplement and Wall Street Journal, lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.
How to Solve Your Own Murder
By: Kristen Perrin.
Publisher: Dutton, 360 pages, $28.
